Microsoft is rolling out a new Dev Channel Build of Windows 11 to members of the Windows Insider program. Among other things, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25247 brings changes to the Task Manager, Start Menu, and Quick Settings panel.
It’s also the first build to feature Energy Recommendations in the system settings.
The recommendations are intended to offer suggestions for improving battery life and reducing power consumption by doing things like turning off your display or putting your PC to sleep after a period of inactivity, adjusting your Windows 11 power mode, and stopping your PC from sending power to connected USB devices when the screen is off.
Another set of changes in this build are the Task Manager tweaks that first debuted in a Beta Channel build last week. Users can filter processes by binary name, publisher name, or PID. You can set the Task Manager theme independently of your Windows system theme (to use Dark Mode for Task Manager and Light mode for everything, for example, or vice versa). And themes are now supported by in-app dialogs.
Other changes in this build include:
- Cloud Storage: The Accounts page in Windows settings will now show cloud storage usage for your Microsoft products.
- Suggested Action: When you copy text that Windows decides is searchable, a dismissible button will pop up asking if you’d like to search the web for that text (I hope this can be turned off, as it sounds annoying).
- Start Menu: Websites will begin showing up in the Recommended section, with recommendations picked from “common websites based on your region or browsing history,” but you can right-click to remove a specific site or stop all sites from being shown.
- System Tray: You can opt to show seconds in the System Tray clock.
- Studio Effects: If you have a Windows on Snapdragon PC that supports Windows Studio Effects for video calls, you can now access them from the Quick Settings menu. These effects let you do things like apply background blur, automatically keep yourself centered in the frame as you move, or make it look like your eyes are always looking at the camera even if you glance away. But since they rely on a Neural Processing Unit, they only support PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips so far.
Microsoft notes that some features, like website recommendations in the Start Menu, may only be shown to some Windows Insiders at launch, suggesting that the company is still testing those features before deciding whether to roll them out more widely.
You can find more changes in Windows 11 Preview Build 25247 in Microsoft’s blog post announcing the release.
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